John Filippi (winner): “It feels great – I missed this victory in 2020 with the Hyundai i30 when I started on pole and finished third. But now it’s like I’ve corrected something from the past – it’s unbelievable! I would say that this season is amazing, everything is going well with the team and with the car. I am always happy to jump in and do my best and especially here because I like this circuit a lot. Honestly, it was not easy; I saw Nicola behind me after the start and I was completely surprised. I was expecting to fight very hard with my teammates, but he arrived behind me and made me push hard. It was not an easy win for sure, since I had to push really hard to keep the gap to make sure he couldn’t pass me. He had nothing to lose and I needed this victory for the Championship and I was worried that it would be too much of a risk if he passed me.”

Nicola Baldan (second): “I made a good start, this was the plan and I then tried to keep the same pace as John. I had a slight advantage in Turn 1 but he had a slight advantage in Turn 3 so I just worked on not making any mistakes. That was not bad for a first race! I had a very good feeling with the car and with the team and now we need to keep going and maybe do even better in Race 2.”

Kobe Pauwels (third): “That was actually quite a boring race for me! I had a good start and overtook Tom, but going into Turn 1 I braked too early and Nicola passed me. From then on we were just driving in a train, basically, and to be honest I didn’t have the pace to fight with Nicola; he was very strong in the warm air while John had the clean air up front, so it was a completely different story for him. But I have to say hats off to Nicola for the performance he did in his first race for the team. For me, it was just a difficult one. I didn’t feel as comfortable in the car as I did in Free Practice or Qualifying and we have some issues we need to sort out for tomorrow but I’m sure we will get there. We have forty people here, so I’m confident we will do it!”